By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
Nigeria will continue to lag behind in Tuberculosis control activities as only 31% of TB funding got into the coffers of the country.
This position was disclosed by the Acting Board Chairman of Stop TB Partnership Nigeria, Dr. Queen Ogbuji who said that out of the $373 million needed for Tuberculosis(TB) control in 2021 only 31% was available to all the implementers of Tuberculosis control activities in Nigeria totalling (7% domestic and 24% donor funds), with 69% funding gap.
According to Ogbuji, less than half of the Global US$15 billion annual funding for TB which world leaders promised promised at the United Nations High-Level Meeting (UNHLM on TB in 2018), has been delivered.
The Stop TB Nigeria head said that TB remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious killers that kills about 4,100 people daily and nearly 30,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease.
She said, “TB is the leading cause of death of people with HIV and a major contributor to antimicrobial resistance. Global efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 66 million lives since the year 2000.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic has reversed years of progress made in the fight to end TB. For the first time in over a decade, TB deaths increased in 2020.”
She noted that the 2022 World TB Day is an opportunity to focus on the people affected by this disease and to call for accelerated action to end TB suffering and deaths, moreso in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“The theme for 2022 World TB Day is “Invest to End TB. Save Lives”. And the slogan for Nigeria is “Give More, Do more, End TB Now!” The theme – ‘Invest to End TB. Save Lives’ conveys the urgent need to invest resources to ramp up the fight against TB and achieve the commitments to end TB made by global leaders”.
“This is especially critical in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic that has put End TB progress at risk, and to ensure equitable access to prevention and care in line with the drive towards achieving Universal Health Coverage. More investment to TB will save millions more lives, and accelerate the end of the TB epidemic.”
“The Stop TB Partnership and all partners are calling on all those involved in the fight against TB to unite under this overarching theme and sound the alarm that the low levels of funding for the TB response year after year cannot continue nor be accepted anymore”.
We therefore call on the government at the federal, state and local government levels as well as corporate sector and philanthropists to invest in TB and prevent people from dying from a preventable and curable disease, she said.
According to the Executive Director of KNCV TB Foundation, in Nigeria Dr Odume Bethrand, the World TB Day is a day set aside to educate the public about the socio-economic impact of TB .
Bethrand disclosed that the KNCV TB Foundation Nigeria, along with funding Partner the USAID, the STOP TB Partnership Nigeria and the Government will use the opportunity to share successes, create awareness and most importantly highlight the key challenges that hinder the progress toward meeting set targets for TB control in Nigeria.
He said, ” Nigeria still accounts for 4.6% of the global estimated TB cases, with the highest TB burden in Africa, the 6″ globally and 1 of 10 countries that accounts for 70% of the global gap between the estimated global incidence of multidrug resistant TB each year and the number enrolled on treatment.”
“About 75% of TB patients in Nigeria and their households are facing catastrophic costs. Though Nigeria is 1 of 4 countries that improved case notification against the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we can do so much more to close the about 70% gap in TB notification.”
He enjoined that “To end TB in Nigeria we must address the funding gap; invest more in human and material resources needed to control the TB epidemic. “
